Exhibition events

Amy Sharrocks, Water Bar & Museum of Water, live artwork

Water Bar was a free, pop-up outdoor bar serving only water drawn from the site of the historic Broad Street pump, the source of a major cholera epidemic that John Snow investigated in 1854. Visitors were asked to consider if their knowledge of this historic ‘cholera site’ affected their willingness to drink water from it, or, if they would prefer to only sip that which has been safely poured from a chrome tap. The Water Bar explored the aesthetic of drinking and Londoners’ connection to water, inviting participation, conversation and reflection on our relationship with this precious, life-giving substance.
Sharrocks’ also invitesdmembers of the public to donate water in the container of their choice to be permanently stored in the Museum of Water. All donations were accepted, from rain-water to fountain water, bath or tap. Through the acquisition of these different waters, a cartography emerged of personal narratives, experiences and memories connected to water.

A series of talks by water related experts took place at the Water Bar at 1pm every day.

Cole and Eggebert’s series of street lectures and performances saw a number of cross- disciplinary speakers and performers return knowledge to the streets of Soho on a weekly basis. Referencing Farr’s Weekly Returns, Snow and Whitehead’s local knowledge and Mayhew’s records of London’s ‘street folk’ during the mid 1800s, the events offer a range of ideas and beliefs in the form of talks, readings and song. Each of the five events were reproduced as a free weekly publication, available from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine’s Keppel Street site and various other locations.

Film screening curated by The Urban Laboratory, UCL.

UrbanLab Films in collaboration with Artakt, Central St Martins and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine present edan interdisciplinary evening of films, audio, readings and talks on water quality and infrastructure in London after John Snow, including:

Emma Jones, reading from her forthcoming book Parched City (Zer0, 2013), a popular history of London’s drinking water through the lens of contemporary discussions of sustainability.

Cultural and architectural historian Barbara Penner, author of Bathroom (Reaktion, 2013), on Joseph Bazalgette’s 1849 plan for urine harvesting and his later role in the construction of London’s sewers.

Anthropologist Bruno Rinovulcri with highlights from Tunnel Visions, a ten part radio series in which he duped a collection of writers, musicians, activists and academics into wading knee deep through the miles of forgotten sewers that stretch beneath London’s surface.

Architectural design research practice Smout Allen on their speculative design project for London’s Hydro Infrastructure, a proposal for an oasis that manages, distributes and displays water, river flood, sea surges and rain fall, concentrating and localising the infrastructure as an alternative to the extensive and embedded systems global cites presently rely upon.